Savor that family time

This is sort of an eyebrow-raiser. My children and I had not all been in the same place at the same time, or even in the same state at the same time, since summer 2012.

I took some time off to see my middle Dear Son play in his graduate recital at the University of Memphis this week. Since my oldest Dear Son is back relocating to Mississippi, he got to come along. As did the youngest two, which were happy to see family and get a day and a half out of school.

This happens, parents. Any friends of mine with kids in college, I warn. Enjoy the time you have with them. Because kids do get transferred for work, as my oldest did. He wound up homesick in Kansas City for a year and a half. And they go out of state to graduate school, as my middle Dear Son did. Those moves happened within months of the other.

So never take having all your crew together for granted. Enjoy every dinner, game night, Netflix movie and church service together. Savor that time together, because as your family grows up, time together can be a finite thing.

Here are my sweet babies. We went to brunch together at Brother Juniper’s near the University of Memphis. From left are oldest Dear Son, middle Dear Son, middle Dear Son’s sweet girlfriend, the Dear Daughter and the youngest Dear Son. If some of them look less than happy, keep in mind that this was in the morning, two of them are sullen teenagers and the rest had not had their coffee.